A trade database can capture a lot of information that is crucial in making many important business decisions. For instance, e-commerce data from a well-defined trade area may contain information regarding where existing customers reside and where they go to do their shopping. It may also contain information regarding where potential customers are located and how they could be better attracted to a business. The data may help find a good location for a new retail store or a customer service center. It may also help a business decide to close down or to relocate a retail store or a customer service center. Trade area data can help maximize existing business resources by freeing up resources that have been misdirected and using such resources to attract potential business or customers. For instance, a mobile communication service provider may be able to find out whether existing service subscribers are adequately served by retail stores and/or service centers that cover the area in which the subscribers reside. The service provider may also find out where in an area of interest the majority of potential subscribers are located so that it can place a new retail store or a customer service center at a location in the area near the potential subscribers, if lack of service or sales representation is a cause of failing to attract them.
Often, however, such potential benefits that are associated with utilizing trade area data are defeated because the information included is not presented in a useful way. As a result, service and sales facilities such as retail stores and customer service centers are often located too far from where existing and potential customers live and/or shop. In other circumstances, stores and/or service centers are added even though one such facility can adequately serve all of existing and potential customers. Precious resources and efforts as well as some of existing and potential customers can be lost when such sales and service facilities are misplaced as the result of faulty planning.
Currently, processes of defining trade areas rely on rather crude techniques. For example, a business often places its first sales or service facility in a busy retail outlet, e.g. a shopping mall in an area, and the next facility is located outside a radial distance from the first facility. However, this crude technique does not capture shopping habits. Nor does it capture factors that are intimately connected to buying a particular product and/or subscribing to a related service. For instance, suppose two large shopping malls are separated by a river or a large interstate highway, but are less than a mile apart from each other. Suppose further that one of the shopping mall has a mega movie theater that shows all the major movies that are currently playing. The other mall has large clothing outlets. If it is found that moviegoers are not likely to visit the clothing outlets, and vice versa, then it would make sense to put one facility in each shopping mall even though the two malls are relatively close to each other. Accordingly, there is a need for a process of evaluating trade areas that is capable of capturing the necessary details and presenting them in a way that can help a business make marketing decisions, e.g. direct staffing, invest financial resources, and establish locations where they can achieve the maximum efficiency and/or capacity.